RAIDERS AGAIN HAMMERED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 250, 19 September 1940, Page 9

RAIDERS AGAIN HAMMERED

BIG LOSSES OVER BRITAIN SERIES OF DAYLIGHT ATTACKS (United Press Association.—Copyright.—Pec. 10.5 a.m. (British Official Wireless.) V RUGBY, Sept. 18. It was officially stated that' 42 enemy aircraft had been destroyed in engagements during the day. Nine R.A.F.-fighters had been lost, but* the pilots 'of five were safe. , Air raid warnings were sounded seven times in the London area after dawn. Most of the warnings were in operation only a few minutes, an exception being one after midday, which lasted one and three-quarter hours. In all cases the raiders were driven off before reaching the outskirts. According to a Daventry announcement 46 German planes were brought down yesterday. For six hours till midnight- , there had been raids on London, the West End receiving -.another attack. Three large stores in Oxford Street were hit earlier and one had been burning all day. Bombs had also fallen on Soho. ■

INDISCRIMINATE BOMBINGS. An Air Ministry communique states: Enemy air - attacks last lnglit were again directed mainly on London. Attacks on a smaller scale were also made in some otter areas. Bombs were dropped indiscriminately in the London area and surrounding districts, destroying many 'dwelling houses, especially in East and SouthEast London. Damage was caused to industrial and commercial premises, including several large shopping stores in Central London. It is feared the casualties may be heavier than on recent nights. Houses and buildings were damaged in a. Merseyside town, where there were a number ot fatalities. A few enemy planes bombed the Glasgow area, where slight damage was done to industrial .premises.. The seventh air raid warning in London to-day, and incidentally the hurfdredth since the outbreak, of the ' war,'.-was given at 5.58 p.m. Three hundred raiders crossed the South-East Coast in an endless stream for fifteen minutes during the afternoon, and eight fighters escorted each bomber. The sirens sounded for the eighth time at 7.58 p.m. •. - ■ DAMAGE AT NIGHT.

Night, raiders’ bombs hit the Lambeth Walk market and three wellknown Oxford Street stores, namely, John Lewis, Bourne and Hollingsworth, and D. H. Evans. Hundreds of people sheltering under the stores were unhurt. A large bomb uprooted trees and tombstones in a central graveyard. Five bombs falling on a building adjoining the Bank of New South Wales set fire to the bank, but the blaze was extinguished after the premises had been damaged by fire and water. An incendiary bomb slightly damaged the Spanish Embassy. During the third warning in the morning the roar of battle was heard over the Thames Estuary. Numerous liigh-explosives considerably damaged one Estuary town, with eight casualties. " , A Linkers plane was shot down by anti-aircraft gu.ns at JVlaidstone la6t night and crashed into two houses. Four of the crew and one elderly invalid were killed. LAMBETH WALK HIT.

Tho Lambeth Walk street market ■was one of the targets that suffered two direct hits by enemy bombs in a recent night raid. This humble street is best known as having given its name to the popular song and dance which have been sung, whistled, anu danced ill almost every country ot tne world since, nearly three years ago, it scored • an immediate success in tne musical play “Me and My Girt, which until the indiscriminate bombings necessitated a suspension, was still running at the London theatre where it was originally performed. The narrow little street, along centre of which runs a quarter of a mile of market stalls lined on eac side with small shops, is the very heart °’Z k ?Z Coot”, .Pint display itself when, soon after daylight followino- the night bombing, shopkeepers and stallholders were cleanngaway th debris and preparing to ca "y customers from the surroundingstreets st v bomb fefl on. the lawn Abbey, causing a al] Ab C^ ter doing no damage to the Abbey .